Fans of the widely popular Fast & Furious franchise of movies already know that the series was successful. However, even die-hard lovers of the films may not know just how successful. From the first installation of the set back in 2001 to the most recently released spin-off film in 2019, the series has become the tenth highest-grossing film series in history, and it isn't even finished yet!
Fans fell in love with the action films back when it debuted in 2001 with The Fast and the Furious. Although there were a wide variety of cars in this initial offering, the overall plot really drew focus to American muscle and classic cars in the form of a 1970 Dodge Charger R/T and a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS, which appealed to gearheads everywhere.
Let’s take a closer look at how well the Fast & Furious franchise has done.
Box Office Totals By Movie
The first move in the franchise released in 2001, The Fast and the Furious, was a box office hit and made just over $40 million on opening weekend. Overall, the worldwide totals for this classic came in at a staggering just over $206 million. The next movie in the series, released two years later in 2003, 2 Fast 2 Furious made over $50 million opening weekend and over $236 million in box offices worldwide.
The third movie, released in 2006, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, switched gears to focus more strongly on rice burners, foreign cars, and drifting. That may partially account for its lower box office numbers as it made just under $24 million opening weekend and just under $158 million worldwide.
In 2009, the franchise saw renewed success with Fast & Furious, which made nearly $71 million opening weekend and over $359 million worldwide. Following that return to success, it seems that the series had cracked the code for serious profit.
Two years later, in 2011, they saw a return of over $86 million opening weekend and over $630 million worldwide with Fast Five. The movies continued this upward trend, with 2013’s Fast and Furious 6 registering over $97 million opening weekend and over $789 million worldwide.
In 2013, the franchise faced a serious tragedy when the leading man, Paul Walker, was in a severe car accident, which resulted in his death during filming the next movie in the series. Fans were stunned by this news and concerned that it might be the end of the franchise.
Furious 7 was completed, though, with the help of Walker’s two brothers (Caleb and Cody) and actor John Brotherton serving alongside CGI overlays. News of the actor’s untimely death helped to bolster box office sales, and the movie, released in 2015, hit opening weekend totals over $147 million and overall worldwide box office totals over $1.5 billion.
2017’s release of The Fate of the Furious did well also, totaling nearly $99 million on opening weekend and over $1.2 billion worldwide. Some of the hype for the franchise seemed to have cooled for the spin-off from the main storyline, though, in 2019’s Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, which drew in just $60 million opening weekend and $759 million worldwide.
The series has announced their next movie, F9: The Fast Saga, to be released in June of 2021 and has confirmed widespread rumors that the series will end with the tenth movie, which has not yet been named or been given an official release date. To date, the grand total across the released movies comes up to an astounding total of just under $6 billion.